fledging

Hi, I love your detail of this website, thank-you so much!

I have a male and female gouldian finches and they have successfully bred 3 babies and it is time for the babies to fledge however, only 1 finch has actually left the nest, over a week ago. The other two babies will not fledge and they are 30 days old, should I be concerned? Should I take them out myself?

Also, the parents did kill one baby by tossing it out but left the rest alone, could tossing happen again with the next batch of babies or does it usually only happen with the first clutch?

Thanks so much for taking the time to answer my questions!

Tammy

Hi Tammy,

Thanks for your kind words. I am glad you like the website. Yes, I would be concerned about the two youngsters who have not come out of the nest yet. I would want to take them out and inspect them to see if there is any obvious physical reason for their lack in development. Are the parents still feeding them? This is not a problem that I have had come up before. As to pairs that toss their young out of the nest, experience has shown me that once a pair has tossed a tiny baby out, that they will most likely continue to do that with future offspring. When that happens, I will foster the eggs of that pair to a family of society finches just to avoid the problem.